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Wellington is home to Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand), the National Library of New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, the Museum of Wellington City & Sea, the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Museum, Colonial Cottage, the New Zealand Cricket Museum, the Cable Car Museum, Old St Paul's, and the Wellington City Art Gallery. Festivals Wellington is home to many high-profile events and cultural celebrations, including the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival, biennial Wellington Jazz Festival, biennial Capital E National Arts Festival for Children and major events such as Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art, Cuba Street Carnival, Visa Wellington On a Plate, New Zealand Fringe Festival, New Zealand International Comedy Festival (also hosted in Auckland), Summer City, The Wellington Folk Festival (in Wainuiomata), New Zealand Affordable Art Show, the New Zealand Sevens Weekend and Parade, Out in the Square, Vodafone Homegrown, the Couch Soup theatre festival, Camp A Low Hum and numerous film festivals. The annual children's Artsplash Festival brings together hundreds of students from across the region. The week-long festival includes music and dance performances and the presentation of visual arts. Film Filmmakers Sir Peter Jackson, Sir Richard Taylor and a growing team of creative professionals have turned the eastern suburb of Miramar into a film-making, post-production and special effects infrastructure centre, giving rise to the moniker 'Wellywood'. Jackson's companies include Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, Camperdown Studios, post-production house Park Road Post, and Stone Street Studios near Wellington Airport.[70] Recent films shot partly or wholly in Wellington include the Lord of The Rings trilogy, King Kong and Avatar. Jackson described Wellington: "Well, it's windy. But it's actually a lovely place, where you're pretty much surrounded by water and the bay. The city itself is quite small, but the surrounding areas are very reminiscent of the hills up in northern California, like Marin County near San Francisco and the Bay Area climate and some of the architecture. Kind of a cross between that and Hawaii."[71] Sometime Wellington directors Jane Campion and Geoff Murphy have reached the world's screens with their independent spirit. Emerging Kiwi film-makers, like Robert Sarkies, Taika Waititi, Costa Botes and Jennifer Bush-Daumec,[72] are extending the Wellington-based lineage and cinematic scope. There are agencies to assist film-makers with tasks such as securing permits and scouting locations.[73] Wellington has a large number of independent cinemas, including The Embassy, Paramount,Penthouse, the Roxy and Light House, which participate in film festivals throughout the year. Wellington has one of the country's highest turn-outs for the annual New Zealand International Film Festival. Music The music scene has produced bands such as The Warratahs, The Phoenix Foundation, Shihad, Beastwars, Fly My Pretties, Rhian Sheehan, Birchville Cat Motel, Black Boned Angel, Fat Freddy's Drop, The Black Seeds, Fur Patrol, Flight of the Conchords, Connan and the Mockasins, Rhombus and Module. The New Zealand School of Music was established in 2005 through a merger of the conservatory and theory programmes at Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Nevine String Quartet and Chamber Music New Zealand are based in Wellington. The city is also home to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Internationally renowned men's A Cappella chorus Vocal FX. Theatre and the dramatic arts Wellington is home to Downstage Theatre, Bats Theatre, Circa Theatre, the National Maori Theatre company Taki Rua, Whitireia Performance Centre, National Dance & Drama School Toi Whakaari and the National Theatre for Children at Capital E in Civic Square. Wellington is home to groups that perform Improvised Theatre and Improvisational comedy, including Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) an Improvisors and youth group, Joe Improv. Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre, houses New Zealand's University-level school of Dance and Drama, Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School & New Zealand School of Dance, and Whitiriea Performing Arts Centre. These are separate entities that share the building's facilities. St James' Theatre on Courtenay Place is a popular venue for artistic performances. Dance Wellington is the home for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the New Zealand School of Dance and contemporary dance company Footnote. Comedy Many of New Zealand's prominent comedians have either come from Wellington or got their start there, such as Ginette McDonald ("Lynn of Tawa"), Raybon Kan, Dai Henwood, Ben Hurley, Steve Wrigley, Guy Williams, the Flight of the Conchords and the satirist John Clarke ("Fred Dagg"). The comedy group Breaking the 5th Wall[74] operated out of Wellington and regularly did shows around the city, performing a mix of sketch comedy and semi-improvised theatre. In 2012 the group disbanded when some of its members moved to Australia. Wellington is home to groups that perform improvised theatre and improvisational comedy, including Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT), The Improvisors and youth group Joe Improv. Wellington hosts shows in the annual New Zealand International Comedy Festival. The NZ International Comedy Fest 2010 featured over 250 local and international comedy acts and was a first in incorporating an iPhone application for the Festival.[75] Visual arts Art Ferns and Civic Square From 1936 to 1992 Wellington was home to the National Art Gallery of New Zealand, when it was amalgamated into Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Wellington is home to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. The city's arts centre, Toi Poneke, is a nexus of creative projects, collaborations, and multi-disciplinary production. Arts Programmes and Services Manager Eric Vaughn Holowacz and a small team based in the Abel Smith Street facility have produced ambitious initiatives such as Opening Notes, Drive by Art, and public art projects. The city is home to experimental arts publication White Fungus. The Learning Connexion provides art classes. Other visual art galleries include the City Gallery. Cuisine This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (January 2014) Café culture is prominent.[76] Restaurants are either licensed to sell alcohol, BYO (bring your own), or unlicensed (no alcohol).[77] Restaurants offer cuisines including from Europe, Asia and Polynesia. "For dishes that have a distinctly New Zealand style, there are lamb, pork and cervena (venison), salmon, crayfish (lobster), Bluff oysters, pāua (abalone), mussels, scallops, pipis and tuatua (both New Zealand shellfish); kumara (sweet potato); kiwifruit and tamarillo; and pavlova, the national dessert," recommends one tourism website.[78] Sport Westpac Stadium Wellington is the home to: The Hurricanes – Super Rugby team representing the Lower North Island, primarily based in Wellington Wellington Lions – ITM Cup rugby team Wellington Phoenix FC – football (soccer) club playing in the Australasian A-League, the only fully professional football club in New Zealand Team Wellington – in the semi-professional New Zealand Football Championship Central Pulse – netball team representing the Lower North Island in the ANZ Championship, primarily based in Wellington Wellington Firebirds and Wellington Blaze – men's and women's cricket teams Wellington Saints – basketball team in the National Basketball League Sporting events include: six pool games and two quarter-final games at the 2011 Rugby World Cup the Wellington Sevens – a round of the IRB Sevens World Series held at the Westpac Stadium over several days every February. It contributes around NZ$6 million to the local economy each year the 2011 Tae Kwon Do World Champs the World Mountain Running Championships in 2005 the Wellington 500 street race for touring cars, between 1985 and 1996 the McEvedy Shield – annual athletics meet for college students from Rongotai College, St Patrick's College (Silverstream), St Patrick's College (Wellington), and Wellington College Education Main article: List of schools in the Wellington Region Victoria University Wellington offers a variety of college and university programs for students. Victoria University of Wellington has four campuses and works with a three-trimester system (beginning March, July, and November).[79] It enrolled 21,380 students in 2008; of these, 16,609 were full-time students. Of all students, 56% were female and 44% male. While the student body was primarily New Zealanders of European descent, 1,713 were Maori, 1,024 were Pacific students, 2,765 were international students. 5,751 degrees, diplomas and certificates were awarded. The university has 1,930 full-time employees.[80] Massey University has a Wellington campus known as the "creative campus" and offers courses in communication and business, engineering and technology, health and well-being, and creative arts. Its school of design was established in 1886, and has research centres for studying public health, sleep, Maori health, small & medium enterprises, disasters, and tertiary teaching excellence.[81] It combined with Victoria University to create the New Zealand School of Music.[81] The University of Otago has a Wellington branch with its Wellington School of Medicine and Health. Whitireia New Zealand has large campuses in Porirua, Wellington and Kapiti; the Wellington Institute of Technology and New Zealand's National Drama school, Toi Whakaari. For further information, see List of universities in New Zealand. The Wellington area has numerous primary and secondary schools. Transport See also: Public transport in Wellington and List of bus routes in Wellington A view from Wadestown of the rail yard looking southwest Wellington is served by State Highway 1 in the west and State Highway 2 in the east, meeting at the Ngauranga Interchange north of the city centre, where SH 1 runs through the city to the airport. Road access into the capital is lower in grade than most other cities in New Zealand – between Wellington and the Kapiti Coast, SH 1 travels along the Centennial Highway, a narrow section of road, and between Wellington and Wairarapa SH 2 transverses the Rimutaka Ranges on a similar narrow accident-prone road. Wellington has two short motorways, both part of SH 1: the Johnsonville–Porirua Motorway and the Wellington Urban Motorway, which in combination with a small non-motorway section in the Ngauranga Gorge connect Porirua with Wellington city. New Matangi electric multiple unit Commuting patterns in the Wellington region during 2006; darker red lines indicate greater traffic. Source: Statistics New Zealand.[82] Bus transport in Wellington is supplied by several different operators under the banner of Metlink. Buses serve almost every part of Wellington city, with most of them running along the "Golden Mile" from Wellington Railway Station to Courtenay Place. Most of the buses run on diesel, but nine routes use trolleybuses – the only remaining public system in Oceania. Two of Tranz Metro's EM class electric multiple units working a southbound morning service on the Hutt Valley Line. Wellington lies at the southern end of the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) and the Wairarapa Line, converging on Wellington Railway Station at the northern end of central Wellington. Two long-distance services leave from Wellington: the Capital Connection, for commuters from Palmerston North, and the Northern Explorer to Auckland. Four electrified suburban lines radiate from Wellington Railway Station to the outer suburbs – the Johnsonville Line through the hillside suburbs north of central Wellington; the Kapiti Line along the NIMT to Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast via Porirua and Paraparaumu; the Melling Line to Lower Hutt via Petone; and the Hutt Valley Line along the Wairarapa Line via Waterloo and Taita to Upper Hutt. A diesel-hauled carriage service, the Wairarapa Connection, connects several times daily to Masterton in the Wairarapa via the 8.8-kilometre (5.5 mi) long Rimutaka Tunnel. Combined, these five services carry 11.64 million passengers per year.[83] Wellington is the North Island port for Cook Strait ferries to Picton in the South Island, provided by state-owned Interislander and private Bluebridge. Local ferries connect Wellington city centre with Eastbourne, Seatoun and Petone. Wellington International Airport is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south-east of the city centre. It is serviced by flights from across New Zealand, and to Australia. Flights to other international destinations require a transfer at another airport, as larger aircraft cannot use Wellington's short (2,081-metre or 6,827-foot) runway, which has become an issue in recent years in regards to the Wellington region's economic performance.[84][85] The airport is the base for Wellington Aero Club, a private not-for-profit flight school.[86][87] Walking is the most common form of getting around within Wellington inner-city. One can walk from one end (the railway station) to the other (Embassy Theatre) in about half an hour. Infrastructure Electric power The maximum electricity demand is forecast to grow on average by 1.4% annually over the next 15 years, from 756 MW in 2012 to 934 MW by 2027, slightly lower than the national average demand growth of 1.7% per annum. The largest source of generation in the region is Meridian Energy's West Wind wind farm, with a maximum output of 143 MW.[88] It is a few kilometres west of Wellington's central business district, on Quartz Hill and Terawhiti Station.[89] There are some other small generators in the region, but the total peak generation is only 165 MW.[90] Peak demand greatly exceeds local generation, and power supply is highly dependent on the National Grid operated by Transpower. Four 220 kV transmission circuits from Bunnythorpe, near Palmerston North, provide the main connections with the national grid. The region is also supplied by the North Island terminal of the HVDC link at Haywards substation, on State Highway 58 above the Hutt Valley. A major upgrade of the HVDC link commissioned in 2013 increased the capacity of the link from 700 MW to 1,000 MW from 2012, and 1,200 MW from 2014. Further information: HVDC Inter-Island The local power distribution network is owned and managed by Wellington Electricity. The main power supplies to the central business district come from Transpower grid exit point substations at Central Park and Wilton. The Central Park substation is the largest grid exit point in the region, with a peak demand of over 170 MW (forecast to grow to 200 MW by 2020). There are constraints and limitations with this substation, and alternative investment solutions are being developed to improve security of supply.[91] Strong winds, advantageous for wind farms, sometimes damage power lines. In May 2009, one windstorm left about 2500 residents without power for a several hours.[92] Lightning strikes and occasional faults in the electric power system sometimes cause power outages.[93] |
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